Mike Gesicki – September 16, 2021
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Thursday, September 16, 2021
TE Mike Gesicki
(How often do people mistake you for LS Blake Ferguson?) – “Never. Never once. Never once in my life. (laughter)”
(Have you ever been a long snapper?) – “Yes, actually. In middle school.”
(Were you good at it?) – “I don’t know if the technique was like professional. I pretty much just threw the ball between my legs. It got to where it had to go. (laughter)”
(What did you like last week about this new offense? Obviously it was fascinating to see that first drive of each half with the RPOs, with the up-tempo at times. What intrigued you? What left you thinking this could be promising?) – “Yeah, I think when we were moving at a fast pace, we were operating at a high level. Tua (Tagovailoa) got everybody lined up and did a very good job at going through his reads and making the right plays, and we were able to put the points on the board in those two situations. Those were two effective drives for us.”
(Do you feel any pressure offensively to kind of need to keep pace and put on the boards because of how explosive Buffalo’s offense is?) – “No. I think they’re a great overall team in all three phases of the game. I think for us, we just have to come out and execute, follow our game plan, follow our rules and make the most of our opportunities when they present themselves. That’s pretty much the name of the game. I don’t think you have to overthink it or make it something that it’s not.”
(How much did you know entering the first game that blocking for the tight end position was going to be a necessary, heavy part of the game plan?) – “I think we’ve got a bunch of different packages and a bunch of different guys that go in for different roles. When you get the personnel on the sideline and you go in – whether you’re in or not – you’ve got to go out and execute or be ready for when your personnel grouping gets called. I think going into a game, there’s many different ways that a game can go depending on if you’re up, down, things are working, things aren’t working. You just try to go into it with an open mind and be ready to go out there and execute when you are given your opportunity or when your name is called.”
(Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey was saying that we have a lot of running backs that are good, we have a lot of tight ends that are good, we have a lot of receivers that are good. Of course, there’s only one ball. How do you approach the general idea that some weeks you might get a lot of targets and some weeks you might not?) – “I approach it the same every single day. The same as I have since I’ve gotten here. I’ve been through – I think we talked about it a couple of weeks ago – the adversity, the getting the ball, the not getting the ball. At the end of the day, I have my routine. I go through it every single day. I follow the things that have gotten me to where I am and I think that’s just the best way that I can approach this. I think that also at the end of the day, we won a football game in a place that we haven’t won a football game too many times in the past couple of years. That was good. I’m excited to move on and get ready for Week 2.”
(You’re one of the players who are old enough to know the old Dolphins before Head Coach Brian Flores got here. There’s always been this mojo about New England, which you guys have gone and beaten them twice in New England. Then the Bills have just owned this franchise since the QB Josh Allen era began. How do you get rid of that?) – “I think this just goes back to what we were talking about before about feeling pressure for this or that. This is the National Football League so every single week there’s going to be a legitimate opponent on the other side and you have to go out and execute. It doesn’t matter if you’ve lost to them X amount of times in the past or if you’ve beat them X amount of times in the past. Division, conference, it doesn’t matter because it’s tough to win in this league. I think that’s the way that we have to approach it. They are a very, very good team in all three phases. They’re well coached, they play hard and are extremely efficient in all three phases. Me personally, I’m excited about it. It’s something that I look forward to. We’ll just keep working and get ready for Sunday.”
(Where do you feel you are now in your run blocking?) – “(laughter) I don’t think that I’m going in there to go in and run block and do all of that stuff; but when my name gets called, I’m going to throw my helmet in there and I’m going to go in there and not just ruin the play. I think that’s kind of the perception of me in terms of run blocking and going in on running downs and all of that kind of stuff. If you know anything about me, I could literally care less about what anybody says about me, this team. If it’s an opinion that’s outside of our locker room, I could care less. That’s kind of my mindset. I go at it every single day and try to improve and just hope to go out there and make some plays and let me preparation speak for itself.”
(In the game against the Bills at Hard Rock Stadium last year, you found some success. In thinking back to that game or having looked at the film, which you probably have, what are some things that led to success?) – “Honestly, they’re a good defense. They do a very good job of disguising coverages. They do an extremely good job of playing off each other in terms of both the safeties. (Jordan) Poyer and (Micah) Hyde, they do a great job. They are experienced and they’ve done a great job in this league. Then also you’ve got another couple talented (line)backers in (Tremaine) Edmunds and (Matt) Milano. So they’ve got a bunch of different guys that they can put on you. They’ve got a good nickel in Taron Johnson. You’ve just got to be able to identify the coverage, identify who is on you and how to run specific routes. Game plans always change and all of that kind of stuff, so to compare it to how it was successful to last year or this year, it’s just different. Some of the schemes are different. Everything in terms of – in that game, a different quarterback played. I mean everything is different. It is what it is. My biggest thing is to just be ready and when that ball comes your way and your number gets called, you’ve got to go out and make a play.”
(As good of a relationship as you and Co-Offensive Coordinator/Tight Ends George Godsey have, and obviously he’s helped you and you’ve helped him. After a game like Sunday, is there ever a time – maybe on the flight home or any time – where he says we wanted to get you the ball more, just the looks were not there? Does that type of thing happen?) – “Nah. At that point, you go in the locker room and everybody is happy. We won the football game. You come back in and watch the film the next day, go through all of your reps and figure out what you did well and what you didn’t do well and try to improve. At the end of the day, there were times last year, times in 2019, times in 2018 where there were also games where I didn’t get the ball. That’s just how this thing goes. This year, we have a 17-game season. There’s a lot of football left to be played. For me, I’m just sticking with my routine. I feel like some people are ready to throw in the hat already on everything. It was Week 1 and we got a win, and that was the most important thing. Now we’re going on to come back home to Hard Rock Stadium and I’m excited to have another opportunity to play this game.”
(This will be your first time in almost two years playing in front of a full house. A lot of these fans haven’t been able to go to a game in almost two years. What is that going to be like?) – “Yeah, for sure. Last year, I know that we were able to have – I think it was (13,000) or something – and that at the time felt like a packed house. To get the fans back in the building at Hard Rock (Stadium), I’m super excited about that. I know they’ve been waiting a long time to get back out there. There’s a lot of excitement in South Florida right now and everybody is fired up, as they should be. Like you said, they didn’t have an opportunity to get out to many games last year so to have this first home game, it’s something that we’re all looking forward to and something that the fans should be looking forward to as well.”
(TE Durham Smythe moved out right?) – “He did. He sure did. I didn’t kick him out so I don’t want that to be the story here. I don’t want the headline to be ‘Gesicki kicks best friend out.’ (laughter) He did move out unfortunately but he’ll be back. He’ll be back for dinner, he’ll be back to hang out. My fiancée is down here and she’ll cook Durham some dinner. Halle will cook it up in the kitchen and we’ll get Durham back. So yeah, we’re excited about it.”
(So you don’t miss him as a roommate?) – “I do miss him as a roommate. Yeah, I loved the company. We would come home, I would sit on the couch, he would sit on the other side of the couch obviously (laughter), and then we would watch Snowfall on Hulu. It’s a great show. We went through all four seasons. The good thing is we were able to finish the show together. Now we literally spend now from 7 a.m. until 6:30 or 7 p.m. tonight. So we still get 12 hours a day (together) which is plenty.”
